The Teen E-Cigarette Epidemic

Daily Conspiracy Writers

The world is nothing like you thought it was..

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt noticed teens and young adults “vaping” everywhere. Although electric cigarettes are arguably healthier than smoking actual cigarettes, many young people are using e-cigarettes for fun instead of using them as an alternative to smoking.

Can you blame them? Vape juice comes in all sorts of flavors and the e-cigs themselves are continually coming out in new and colorful designs. In fact, this influx in use among young people is not happening by accident. Tobacco companies have always gone after the youth and young adults to sustain sales. Now electric cigarette companies are doing the same thing.

One company, in particular, is making huge waves in the e-cig market, JUUL. The JUUL e-cig looks nothing like a cigarette, instead, it looks like a USB thumb drive. Because of its discreet design, teenagers are bringing them to school and using them in class.

“We go for a walk. We stop in the bathroom. It’s not uncommon to see a circle of kids passing it around,” said Steve Lehman, a High School Principal in PA. “That’s where we confiscate.”

The e-cigarette device can quickly be recharged on a laptop, come in colorful designs, and users can buy liquid-filled cartridges in flavors like crème brulee, mango, and fruit medley. Mimicking candy, JUUL is marketing to younger populations with these fun flavors.

“The idea that tobacco industries, including cigarettes or JUULs, are putting flavors in or having flavors because they want to promote this to adults is ridiculous,” said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Ph.D., a developmental psychologist and pediatrics professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. “Youths, first of all, think that the flavors are for them, not for adults, and they are definitely more flavor-sensitive than are adults, so the FDA absolutely needs to regulate flavors.”

Public health officials are concerned by the rapid pace the JUUL craze has caught on.

“People JUUL at parties, JUUL when they’re driving — it’s a social thing. They’re JUULing all the time,” said 17-year-old student.

The company has tried to appear as though it’s not looking to capture the young market. The website asks users if they are 21 or older and states that the device is not for teens.

“At JUUL Labs, we are innovating to improve the lives of adult smokers. In addition, see how we are actively combating underage use of nicotine products,” writes JUUL on its website.

The creators of JUUL claim that they made the device as a “satisfying alternative” to cigarettes.

“JUUL was developed with the smoker in mind. In 2007, James Monsees and Adam Bowen – both graduate students in the Stanford design program – co-founded JUUL because they’d been smokers for many years and were increasingly dissatisfied with the health and social impacts of cigarettes. Wanting to create a true alternative to combustible tobacco products, James and Adam knew that smokers who want to switch are looking for something that does not look or feel like a cigarette. The result was JUUL,” according to the company’s website. “We are committed to eliminating cigarettes and providing smokers with a true alternative.”

But, JUUL hasn’t received FDA approval to be sold as a smoking cessation like the nicotine patches and gums on the market.

The company claims that the understated design was developed to help smokers switch from traditional cigarettes.

“It is not intended to be discreet. It was not designed to look like a flash drive,” said Christine Castro, the company’s spokeswoman. “It was designed specifically and intentionally to help smokers switch.”

Regardless of what the company claims, JUUL has been quickly woven into the teenaged culture.

“We’re very concerned about JUUL because it has become such a popular product among young people very, very rapidly,” said Robin Koval, CEO of the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit youth anti-smoking organization.

JUULing is different than vaping. It’s described as being more intense and has 5% nicotine in one JUUL cartridge, which is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes.

“We know that nicotine has effects on young people’s cognitive development. If you become addicted to nicotine at a younger age, it makes you more susceptible to other addictions later on. It makes it harder to quit nicotine, whether that’s from an e-cigarette-type product or combustible product,” said Koval.

Sadly, some of the teens don’t even know that the devices have nicotine.

Some schools have gone as far to ban flash drives to hinder the JUUL craze.

Vaping, in general, has spiked at schools.

“In the last few years, vaping with e-cigarettes has taken off. In 2017, 18.5% of 8th graders said they had ever vaped, up from 17.5% the previous year. That compared with 9.4% who had ever smoked cigarettes, down from 9.8% the previous year, according to researchers at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

The long-term effects of these e-cigarettes are still unknown. So it’s undetermined if JUULing is better than smoking.

“E-cigarette vapor generally contains fewer toxic substances at lower levels than smoke from cigarettes, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published earlier this year. While the vapor may be less hazardous than tobacco smoke, it isn’t risk-free. A study of 103 high-school students in the San Francisco area published last month in Pediatrics showed that measured levels of toxic substances such as acrolein and propylene oxide were significantly higher in teen e-cigarette users than non-users,” writes the WSJ.

What better way to send our children into the world than with a brand new addiction. These are the same techniques used to hook youngsters on cigarettes in the past. E-Cigarette companies can claim they want to prevent young people from using their products, but until they stop marketing to them, their words mean nothing. At the end of the day, these companies make money off of addiction.

14 Comments

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It would be helpful if you showed readers some of these devices, particularly the ones that appear to be a thumb drive

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Dumb them down, drug them up, is it any wonder that the country is toast, burnt toast! I surmise that THC infused JUUL is in the works if it hasn’t already been covertly incorporated into this latest trickery! You got to hand it to these Satanic NWO-ists, they are as clever and devious as their god Satan!

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As a longtime smoker, I can easily say that nicotine has to be one of the most addictive substances ever encountered by man. A former co-worker once told me kicking his $100-a-day cocaine habit was a walk in the park compared to quitting smoking. I’ve tried repeatedly and have failed. I’ve used vaping as a smoking substitute in the past and didn’t find it that satisfying. I’ve recently becoming very anti-vaping when my 15-year old grandson not only expressed a desire to start vaping, he even asked me to procure vaping supplies for him, which I not only refused to do, but actually alarmed me. I gave him the old speech with all the usual warnings and all my expressions of regret at having started smoking to begin with. I don’t believe in outlawing tobacco any more than I’d advocate a revival of Prohibition, but the vaping manufacturers need to be brought to heel by the FDA as well as the FTC “toot sweet.” If anything, these vaping cretins may be bigger rat bastards than the ones in the tobacco industry.

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I spent many years in the at home MEDICAL EQUIPMENT world, we mainly helped CHRONIC LUNGERS, many could not quite smoking, even after being diagnosed with lung CANCER, There were pictures of addicts with cigs stuck in their throat stoma! It is down right evil, especially using those incredibly stupid teen agers.

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There is no such thing as a nicotine addiction, it isn’t that they can’t quit, they don’t really want to quit and it’s as simple as that. When you truly decide you want to quit it isn’t that hard, just change your patterns. It’s a habit, not an addiction. You move in well worn paths, change the path, change the habit. There are nicotine receptors in our brains because many vegetables contain small amounts of nicotine. The nightshade group has the most. Some brain chemicals are made with the nicotine we get regularly from our diet. It is a lie that nicotine is damaging to kids brains, it may be damaging in excess, but then anything in excess is damaging.

Post Author

Oh please, Weed is fast becoming not only legal but recommended product for anyone (including teens), and we are supposed to be worried about people “vaping”. Let’s find another cause folks like trying to keep teens from eating soap pods and inhaling prophylactics. Geez

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Research (reported in Science News long ago) proved that the damage of smoke inhalation was in the PARTICULATE MATTER and it didn’t matter whether the smoky stuff was diesel fumes or cigarettes… the key to this proof was their finding that smoke particle CROSS THE LUNG-BLOOD BARRIER so particulates get into the blood stream where they are as damaging as putting sand in your oil tank…. who told the world that it was the ‘nicotine’ that harmed you…. the nicotine just keeps you doing it, and the smoky particles are what kill you…….

Of course those same helpful health and medical authorities also “neglected” to tell the public that therapeutic dosing of vitamin C will cure addictions, heroine to nicotine… so what’s therapeutic? That’s when you take doses (dependent on the depth of the addiction) around the clock, like a few GRAMS (1/4 tsp=gram) every hour to reach several tablespoons worth a day for a few days… pop those pills, or mix a days worth in a bottle of milk/drink and sip away…. and/or for smoking, mix a strong solution of C in water and put it in a handheld spraybottle to soak the back of your throat (for nicotine addiction only) whenever the urge hits you. Plan on taking a multi vitamin and mineral AT EVERY MEAL because addiction is a sign of failed nutrition, spiraling to serious trouble……. ttyl

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Interesting, I was a long time smoker, was smoking two packs a day (I was a First Sergeant in the Infantry). In 1973 I decided to quit, I smoked my last cigarette (didn’t want to waste something), and laid them down and I have had no desire for a cigarette since then nor have I took up another cigarette!

The moral here is when an addict, any addict, chooses to quit he/she will quit and not before then no matter the information of the addiction’s dangers is repeated! Truth, nicotine is far more addictive than any other drug and for some people, it is the hardest to turn your back on!

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I’ll tell you what 41 years of smoking did to me. Ten years ago I suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and stroke. I was in a coma for 3 months and when I woke up from the coma, I was paralyzed on my right side. I couldn’t walk , talk or even feed myself. I was 54 at the time.
I still have effects from it. I can’t walk across the room with out running out of breath. I have severe chronic obstructive lung disease and am on oxygen 24 hours a day. My life is gone. COPD gets worse over time, there is no cure. I tried to quit but when I went for a few hours with a cigarette, I started coughing and sometimes I would cough so hard I would vomit. The only thing that would stop it was to smoke another cigarette. Did I ask for help. No. Now looking back I wish I had. But it is to late. I made my lungs a mess and I am going to have to live and die with it.
So, teenagers, take from a former smoker, it’s not worth it in the end.

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It’s not the nicotine one has to worry about in this case, it’s the glycol and other additives that are harmful to the lungs. It’s not nicotine that’s harmful to the lungs, it’s the smoke and smoke by-products. But the glycol is worse.